Album Review: Liz Lawrence – 'The Avalanche'
After a year of reflection and reinvention, Liz Lawrence returns with third studio album ‘The Avalanche’.
Born out of a desire to embrace the exuberant nature of her live performances, ‘The Avalanche’ builds a stark contrast to Liz Lawrence’s firmly established collection of sombre, personal-to-a-fault songwriting. Across 11 dynamic tracks, Liz creates a world of bright colour and (e)motion. "I like to dance, and I like to move, and I wanted to make a record that people would move to quite naturally," she says. "I wanted it to have motion. I think it's quite silly, and it's joyful, and I'm not always sure people expect that from me.”
In keeping with this statement of joyful intent, opening track ‘Down For Fun’ sets the tone for the entire album. Wrapped into fuzzy vocals and muddy basslines, Liz proves that she hasn’t lost any of her magnetic appeal, she’s adding to it. From what feels like the audio-only equivalent to a very enthusiastic 80s workout video (‘Babies’) to the psychedelic grooves of ‘Saturated’, the record boasts a multitude of weird and wonderful sonic adventures that make for an immersive listening experience. Though unexpected, this evolution from bittersweet melancholy to soaring liberation sees Liz take an enormous step forward and serves as a reminder that the singer-songwriter is not to be underestimated.
But ‘The Avalanche’ marks not only the birth of a new sound, it follows Liz as she finds a new approach to songwriting. Where previous album ‘Pity Party’ explores the drama of her own life, her latest record finds Liz looking at the world around her. “Go to work, don’t go to bed. Hot nights and cold sweats,” she sings on ‘I’ll Go On”, directly confronting the all too familiar “can’t stop, won’t stop” mentality of a society that consistently puts productivity over mental health.
As innovative as it is observant, ‘The Avalanche’ is a formidable follow up to 2019’s ‘Pity Party’. A natural extension of her powerful live sets and a gorgeous introduction to a new era of maturity, her third studio album paints a clear picture of the extraordinary talent that is Liz Lawrence.
Words by Laura Freyaldenhoven